A tense, timely thriller with heart and a standout heroic lead.
This first installment in Lovett and Schultz’s political thriller series introduces a team of international experts dedicated to human rights.
In Yangon, Myanmar, a country ripped apart by a coup, 12-year-old Vika is arrested alongside his father for the crime of sharing poetry. News of Vika’s arrest reaches Kae Zhang, the fearless founder of the Geneva-based human rights organization Article 5. Kae and her diverse team of driven workers, each with personal experience of global displacement and discrimination, set to work on the tricky logistics of getting Kae into Myanmar to negotiate Vika’s release. With the help of her mentor, the crusty and brazen Reinhardt Allen, Kae and her number two, Anan, set off for Thailand, where they begin a dangerous journey across the border into Myanmar. Reinhardt engages a trusted guide named Champo and secures a meeting with a colonel who may be willing to negotiate—but only on his terms. As Kae moves through a shifting landscape of dangerous jungles, decimated villages, and unjust courts, Vika’s freedom seems to move ever further out of reach. Enemies soon appear on all sides—even back in Geneva, where the rest of the Article 5 team members start to feel the reverberations of their dangerous fight for the young boy’s life. Lovett and Schultz map familiar espionage tropes onto well-rendered real-world struggles; realistic fights for dignity and justice drive the action. The authors’ depictions of Myanmar—and of the terror imposed by its military rulers—feel both chilling and authentic, beginning with the assault on Vika’s shop, where “terror lingered in the air, an acrid burning smell.” Kae is an admirable hero with a compelling balance of impressive credentials and relatable insecurity. (She displays plenty of wit, as well: “I just channel my inner Sisyphus,” she says to explain her perseverance.) The cast of secondary characters at Article 5 is equally engaging; the team members are distinguished by vivid personalities and layered backstories. The shared histories and subtle shorthand between them hint at a whole world of fascinating previous adventures and ones to come as the series progresses.
A tense, timely thriller with heart and a standout heroic lead.Pub Date: April 22, 2026
ISBN: 9781644568842
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Nail-biting and pressure-packed.
Jack Ryan Jr. and company race to stop a killer wave in this Tom Clancy thriller.
The ship Meridian Star departs eastern Russia unknowingly carrying a pair of containers with radioactive cesium chloride. The vessel is hijacked and scuttled in Micronesia near the Mariana Trench, and the crew is murdered. A huge insurance claim results, and Jack, an accomplished deep-sea diver who works for Hendley Associates, is there to investigate. The hostile Chinese learn it’s there and want that illicit cargo. Meanwhile, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center discovers a huge, mysterious object in 600 feet of water. At that depth, the pressure is unsurvivable without complex special equipment, which is vintage Tom Clancy. Whatever the strange object is, it’s “not a ship…not a submarine…not an aircraft.” On the side is a faded hammer and sickle and Cyrillic letters that spell Siren. Ryan teams up with Navy divers, and they look for a way to safely enter and explore the object. They discover that the underwater contraption has thermonuclear warheads attached, left and long forgotten by the USSR. If the warheads explode, they could still achieve their apparent purpose—to trigger a tsunami and destroy Guam, which is strategically important to the U.S. The Chinese know it too, and the race is on to take control. The result is plenty of high-stakes undersea action, where death can come from a bullet, a knife, or a sliced air hose. But there’s action on land, too. Navy master diver Carla Bennett and Jack take on a surprise assault in a hotel where Carla shows off stellar fighting skills—better than Jack’s. These two aren’t the only heroes here, as there’s a well-balanced cast of characters, all brave and likable. And of course—of course—where there’s a bomb, there’s a ticking clock.
Nail-biting and pressure-packed.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798217183166
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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